Fort Bragg helicopter pilots use new equipment for realistic training

• Black Hawk Aircrew Trainer helps helicopter pilots get ready for challenging situations
• Equipment at Simmons Army Airfield provides safer and less expensive training method.
• Retired pilots say sharp graphics on computer screens make simulator realistic.

Black Hawk helicopter pilots at Fort Bragg are training under realistic conditions in a simulator that arrived at the post a few months ago.

The Black Hawk Aircrew Trainer (BAT) at Simmons Army Airfield provides a safer and less expensive way for pilots to get ready for challenging situations.

One situation that aircrews have to prepare for is flying in Afghanistan, where U.S. forces have been fighting since shortly after the 9/11 terrorists attacks in 2001.

Tom Wallis, an instructor and operator for the simulator, is a retired Black Hawk pilot. He flew in Afghanistan, where pilots often have to land at elevations of 10,000 feet.

“For a helicopter, that’s quite a challenge,” he said. “You just don’t land there like a normal airfield.”

The new training equipment simulates that situation and others for the pilots, Wallis said. He said the trainer is realistic.

“It will pretty much mimic anything the real machine will do except that element of not being a real machine,” he said.

Pat Trotter, the supervisor of flight simulation at Fort Bragg, said instructors can present pilots with difficult situations such as engine failure or a fire.

“All the stuff that can kill you,” he said.

Wallis said the equipment lets pilots practice difficult maneuvers again and again.

“If you crash in here, you walk away,” he said.

The new trainer, which replaces similar equipment, has sharp graphics that are displayed on screens in front of and beside the pilots, who use instruments exactly like those in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

Trotter said the simulator is different from older versions which use hydraulics to actually lift the equipment and move it around.

Instead, the new trainer uses the images and movement of the pilots’ seats to imitate the feeling of flight, Trotter said.

“We’re lying to your brain,” he said. “It feels like you’re flying by the seat of your pants.”

Those who aren’t used to being in the simulator can feel queasy while watching the aircrew in front of the screens, especially if the pilots are “yanking and banking,” Trotter said.

“It’s so realistic that people don’t know that they’re not actually up” in the air, he said.

Wallis said the trainer lets pilots fly in an area similar to Fort Bragg or in different locations such as deserts, coastal areas or mountains.

“It enables the aircrew to be ready for just about any environment,” he said.

Trotter said the trainer also can connect with other simulators at Fort Bragg or at other military installations. Black Hawk pilots at Fort Bragg can fly simulated missions with CH-47 Chinook pilots from Fort Hood, he said.

The simulators aren’t toys for the pilots, Trotter said.

“What they do in here, they’ll do in combat,” he said.

Staff writer Steve DeVane can be reached at sdevane@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3572.